Religious Freedom For Me Not For Thee

Religious freedom is near and dear to me and I’ve written here before on the topic. To me and others it means being able to practice your faith or non-faith without interference or coercion by government at any level. Republicans seem to mean something else entirely when they speak of the topic. As exemplified by the cases below, to Republicans religious freedom means the freedom to push their faith on everyone else.

Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, is a case which will be argued before the Supreme Court in April on behalf of the public school district in Bremerton, Washington, which is trying to protect the religious freedom of its students and their parents. Kennedy is a one-time football coach who was placed on paid administrative leave after he refused to stop leading prayers on the 50-yard line after games.

Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram of Knoxville, Tennessee are a Jewish couple who wanted to foster and adopt a Florida child, and they needed to obtain foster-parent training and a home study authorized by Tennessee to do so. The only accessible place to get those services was Holston United Methodist Home for Children, which is funded by the state to provide the services. But Holston canceled the couple’s training because it only accepts “families that share our [Christian] belief system.”

Aimee Maddonna of South Carolina, was denied a similar opportunity because of her Catholic faith as was another South Carolina couple. Both have sued after they were rejected by Miracle Hill Ministries, the largest state-contracted and government-funded foster care agency in South Carolina, because Miracle Hill restricts "eligibility to prospective foster parents who are evangelical Protestant Christians." U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina denied a motion to dismiss those suits, ruling that "to the extent defendants' assert that their actions are immune from challenge under the Establishment Clause as 'religious accommodation,' such argument is directly contrary to the well-pled allegations in the complaint and long-established federal jurisprudence and must be rejected at this stage of the proceedings."

According to the civil complaint "For prospective foster parents who live in South Carolina's upstate region and do not meet Miracle Hill's religious requirements, the primary foster care agency serving the region is not available to them. Such denial creates a practical barrier to fostering, as not all foster care agencies are equivalent or offer the same services, and also stigmatizes these families, branding them as inferior and less worthy of serving as foster parents. Moreover, this discriminatory treatment of prospective foster parents denies children access to families they need."

Lawyers for the families allege that the state violated the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution by essentially establishing a religious test for foster parents in northern South Carolina.

Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had granted a waiver to Miracle Hill Ministries from federal non-discrimination rules. The Biden administration stopped this blatantly unconstitutional practice.

All of these folks are paying taxes to support discrimination that victimizes them. I don’t know about you but if I paid my taxes and got such a slap in the face I’d be pretty upset.

This is exactly the kind of government funded discrimination that our founders were concerned about and which the first amendment clearly opposes yet Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, refers to as “so-called separation of church and state”. We all have reason to worry about out religious liberty when Republicans are in control.

 Published in the Seguin Gazette - March 23, 2022

Republican Proposition Non-sense

Sometimes you have to wonder what rock a person lives under to be so unaware of the world around them. The Texas Republican Primary ballot included Propositions on a variety of typical conservative boogeymen and the resulting vote count suggests that there is a very large field of rocks somewhere under which most Republican Primary voters apparently live.

One need only look with a clear eye at the propositions and vote counts, and keeping up the news over the last few years to come to that conclusion. First is the demand to “immediately deploy the National Guard, Texas Military Forces, and necessary state law enforcement to seal the border, enforce immigration laws, and deport illegal aliens,” which garnered 92%. The problem is that Gov. Abbott deployed Texas National Guard troops to the Mexican border a year ago. Abbott remains committed to keeping National Guard troops on the border even though judges have ruled that many of the program's policies violate federal jurisdiction over immigration. Three months before announcing his re-election campaign, Abbott ordered a massive deployment of about half the state's 20,000 or so National Guard troops to the border and gave them just over two months to get it done creating a logistical nightmare that has led to poor living conditions and deteriorating mental health which may have contributed four guard members committing suicide.  Guard members report that their days are idle because they don't feel qualified to make arrests. One of my neighbors is among the troops who have been deployed for a year.

The next goofy idea on the Primary ballot was so dumb that it only earned 75%, still an overwhelming majority. The Texas Republican Party leadership thought it would be a good idea for Texas to “eliminate all property taxes within ten (10) years without implementing a state income tax.” Now while we would all love not to pay property taxes the problem is that also not paying a state income tax means that either you raise sales taxes to make up the difference or you stop funding programs that rely on property taxes. No one should be surprised to find that more than 50% of public education funding comes from property taxes so what Texas Republicans have essentially said is they want destroy public education entirely. That’s been the goal of “school choice” proponents all along.

Of course Republican foolishness isn’t limited to fake border security and taxes. Republican leadership and 88% of their primary voters also consider your health and the health of your family of no consequence. The third proposition on the ballot says “Texans should not lose their jobs, nor should students be penalized, for declining a COVID-19 vaccine.” Well friends I have to tell you that my wife is immune compromised and the notion that she or someone like her would be put in the position of either risking her life or giving up a job because others are too selfish and obstinate to do what they’ve been doing since they first went to school and get a darn shot makes my blood boil.

Apparently 92% of Texas Republican voters are historically challenged as they approved a proposition that says “Texans affirm that our freedoms come from God and that the government should have no control over the conscience of individuals.” If freedom comes from God, why did the 13 colonies fight a revolutionary war starting in 1776, and why did Texas fight a revolutionary war against Mexico starting in 1835?

There is plenty more non-sense where this came from, just remember what Republicans stand for in November.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - March 9, 2022